“At the root of the problems uncovered over the course of our wide-reaching investigation was the practice of indiscriminate deletion of all emails sent and received by the former chief of staff to the minister of energy,” Cavoukian wrote.

That is in violation of the Archives and Recordkeeping Act (ARA).

Cavoukian said it is impossible for citizens to hold governments to account if potentially important documents are destroyed.

This is in her quest to find out what happened to the Ontario Power Plant cancellation under Dalton McGuinty, and that’s the conclusion she comes to:

When the government breaks the law, it’s impossible for anyone to hold them to account.

At this point the dull wit of the Ford/Harper supporter would mumble something about these being my Liberals, and why do I keep supporting them, etc.

That’s the sad dry rhetoric that anyone with more than a few brain cells has to endure these days — you’re either with the Conservatives or you’re with the Liberals, and there’s absolutely nothing in between. Doesn’t matter how many times you try to explain that it’s possible to support neither — that just doesn’t quite compute.

But I don’t want to get hung up on that because there are numerous disturbing parallels and trends here:

I know if you’re reading what I’ve written here for the first time that it sounds like almost insane ramblings — just please do me one favour and follow some of the links, you’ll see that nothing is in any way false or exaggerated. In fact, what I link to doesn’t even come close to the truth once you start digging around, and that truth is a lot darker and more disturbing than what I can dredge up at any given moment.

Even more disturbing are Cavoukian’s further comments:

“I am very disturbed the former minister of energy’s office produced absolutely NO records in response to the speaker’s ruling on the gas plants issue, and that the former premier’s office had so few records that were responsive to two freedom of information requests relating to these decisions.”

She singled out Craig MacLennan, former chief of staff in the energy minister’s office, for deleting all emails, calling it “a matter of great concern” given legal requirements to keep records of public policy decisions like power plant closures.

“It is simply unbelievable that MacLennan would have no understanding of this,” Cavoukian wrote. “I find it strains credulity to think . . . no records documenting the decision-making process were ever created.”

“In view of the respondent’s leadership role in ensuring integrity in municipal government, it is difficult to accept an error in judgment defence based essentially on a stubborn sense of entitlement (concerning his football foundation) and a dismissive and confrontational attitude to the Integrity Commissioner and the Code of Conduct. In my opinion, the respondent’s actions were characterized by ignorance of the law and a lack of diligence in securing professional advice, amounting to wilful blindness. As such, I find his actions are incompatible with an error in judgment.”

That was Judge Hackland’s take on Rob Ford’s “but I didn’t know anything!” defense at his conflict of interest trial. Clearly the Libs are doing the same thing, and I’m sure I can find plenty of examples of the Conservatives wielding the same bullshit.

As Conservative MPP Rob Leone says (hopefully just ignorant to the irony):

The Libs create “a secret world hidden from the opposition, the media and the public eye . . . people are breaking the law.”

Yes they are, only it’s happening up one side of government and down the other. And as commissioner after commissioner is finding out, the people of Canada are powerless to stop it.

Except, of course, we aren’t. We just need to rise up in sufficient numbers and with sufficient anger to force the powers that be out. If they have seized power of the nation illegitimately and are committing open treason to boot then we are justified in using force to do so (something that the courts and RCMP should be doing), just as we are justified in using force to repel their illegal and tyrannical advances (if the rule of law prevails then surely so must our highest laws, things our courts and the RCMP should be protecting). And if you don’t believe in the law then at least believe in your God-given rights to exist and be free.